


In Darkness

by JazzRaft



Series: In Weakness & In Strength [9]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Bittersweet, Character Study, Gen, Hopeful Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 13:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20390260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/pseuds/JazzRaft
Summary: Cor thought he had nothing left to teach Prompto. As the darkness stretches more over Eos, he comes to learn there is still one lesson he can impart to him. And it's one Prompto taught Cor himself.





	In Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> A [prompt fill](https://jazzraft.tumblr.com/post/187261801272/omg-heyy-this-may-sound-weird-but-i-just-wanted) for an anonymous request!

“Why didn’t you fight back?”

“Why did you?” Cor snapped.

This was an argument they’d been having more times than Cor cared to count. As many times as they’d come to blows though, Cor never came away from these verbal scrapes any less confused. Because once upon a time – not all that long ago, in fact – it would have been him demanding to know why Prompto dared to show mercy for the monster that nearly mauled him. Not the other way around.

“That thing would have killed you!” Prompto cried, outraged by the criticism.

Cor knew what he was thinking. It was the same thought that had plagued the boy since the first day Cor trained him. Prompto valued the lives of others more than any other Crownsguard-in-training Cor had ever met. It was both a virtue and a curse: on the one hand, he would save the life of his king with lethal devotion; on the other, he might hesitate to take the killing shot on an assailant if it meant sparing their life, too.

It had taken a long time for them to work through it, and longer still for Cor to teach Prompto that his own life was just as valuable as the ones he’d be trying to save. So he knew now that Prompto wasn’t angry with him for questioning his marksmanship. He was never that arrogant. No, Prompto was angry with him because he thought Cor had given up on his own life. He saw the Immortal sheath his sword as the daemon raced toward him, and thought he was trying to prove that he wasn’t quite so immortal after all.

That wasn’t it.

“Forget it,” Cor muttered, watching the gangly beast fumble back into the darkness, black scourge bloodstains trailing in its footsteps. “Let’s head back to camp.”

Prompto opened his mouth to argue, then shut it again with a sharp clap of his teeth. The question was not closed, not by a long shot, but he and Cor both knew that they were not in a place for a moral debate. The days grew ever darker as Noctis’s absence was felt longer. The havens were beginning to snuff out, and with those last flickers of the Oracle’s light fading, so too was the hope of Eos’s people.

Cor wondered if that was where Prompto’s light had gone. It hadn’t vanished yet, not completely, but ever since Noctis disappeared, the bright, golden lightbulb of Prompto’s smile had slowly started to dim. The darkness had dragged off the rest of the world’s innocence after the Oracle died and the King of Light walked into the Crystal. Those of them who were surviving the daemon hordes did so by sacrificing a little more of themselves to the darkness as every hour of light was overtaken by the night. There was little space left for mercy when the monsters that crawled out of the shadows to drag them inside were incapable of it themselves.

Cor knew this. But Prompto seemed to know it better. And that’s what always confused him the most.

When had he and Prompto traded places? When had he forgotten how to be merciless against the darkness? When had Prompto learned to be? Through learning by example, of course. Cor couldn’t resent him for the change. He knew that he only had himself to blame for it. But for years, he’d tried to train Prompto to be better than he was. He’d tried to arm him with the tools to protect himself and his king, all while trying not to compromise his kindness.

But that was all before the darkness came. And it was a much harsher teacher than he’d ever been.

“So, you want to tell me what happened back there?”

The trek back to camp had been wrung tight with silence, each of them distracting themselves from the question left unanswered by watching the shadows for beady red eyes. Cor had kept his hand near his sword, while Prompto held both guns in his grip, fingernails tapping against the triggers, anxious for another attack.

That’s what happened, Cor wanted to say. Prompto had changed, despite all of Cor’s hopes to the contrary. What happened was that Cor had surprised himself with just how badly he’d been hoping that change would not happen at all. He surprised himself with just how much he’d come to rely on the boy’s optimism, his enthusiasm for life. What had happened was that he’d become too much like Cor.

“You did what you knew you had to,” Cor said over the campfire, gliding an oiled cloth over his sword. “That’s what happened. You saved my life, yet again, and I thank you for that.”

“But.”

He didn’t want to tell him. Though, perhaps he might not care. Cor stared at his reflection in the blade, at the wrinkles beginning to form at the corners of his eyes. He stared at the weariness of knowing too much and being incapable of doing anything about it. Then he stared up at Prompto. At the sharp, electric glare of his eyes; not angry, but resolved. Resolved to hear what he’d done wrong, what he’d done to earn Cor’s disapproval.

He probably should have felt guiltier about that. He used to, back when he was just beginning to train the boy. It used to leave a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach, to look at that expectant face as if Cor was worth the admiration. But they were different men now, equals in this fight against the darkness. They were both under the same tutelage. Cor wasn’t the one with all the answers anymore.

“But…” Cor looked to the campfire, at the quiet crack and snap of the kindling spreading sparks up into the night, a warning for the creatures that prowled beyond the border of light. “These creatures used to be people once. The one back there… I thought I used to know it.”

He couldn’t say for sure what he recognized in the beast exactly. When he thought back to whatever instinct had stayed his blade, he couldn’t remember what he saw. But he’d felt this pull, as powerful as the urgency for battle, calling for his mercy. Maybe it used to be a Crownsguard. Maybe it used to be another uncouth young man with an axe to grind on Imperial armor. Whatever Cor had seen, he’d been certain: _I knew this one._

And he thought that Prompto might have, too. If it used to be a student of Cor’s, it might have been a pupil of Prompto’s. And even though he knew that there was no coming back from the fate of the scourge, even though he knew that the daemons were past the point of humanity… Maybe there was still a small part of him left that wanted to hope.

“We can’t save them, Cor.”

Prompto’s voice was quiet, eyes downcast to the gun in his hand. Doubt creased between his brows, like he’d answered this question for himself a long time ago. He would have been the first to ask, Cor thought. He would have wanted to know if they could save any of them. They weren’t all that different, the MT and the daemons. If they couldn’t be saved, what did that mean for Prompto?

Maybe it was the answer that had hardened him. Maybe it was the thought that there was no hope for the likes of them at the end of this night.

“I’m not sure we know that,” Cor said.

It was the truth. They didn’t know anything. And that was the most frustrating part of being left in the dark. They could plan and postulate all they wanted, but there was no guarantee until the King returned. All they could do was hope. Perhaps that was what had changed between them. If Prompto had lost hope, Cor would have to keep it for the both of them. There was still one thing left he had to teach him after all. And it was a lesson Prompto himself had taught him, long ago.

“The world may have come to an end, but we’re still here,” Cor said. “We’re here for Noct. And he wouldn’t want us to give up. Not on him, and not on the rest of Lucis.”

Prompto bit his lip, thumb drifting over the grip of his gun. The weapon was proof that Noctis was alive somewhere. It was a promise that he would return, no matter how long it took him to come back. It was a reminder to have hope.

“Still have a lot to learn, don’t I?” Prompto said, laughing humorlessly.

“I’ll teach you,” Cor said, the faintest hint of a smile wrinkling his weary face. “I learned from the best.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked what you read, please consider leaving a comment! <3


End file.
